Obama said he doesn't think the Iraq hearing should have been held around 9/11.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The race for the Republican presidential nomination just got uglier.

A spokesman for Fred Thompson’s presidential bid accused GOP rival Mitt Romney’s campaign of a “cover-up” Tuesday over a now defunct Web site, which portrayed the former Tennessee senator in an unflattering manner and referred to him as “phony.” The Web site, www.phonyfred.org, was created by Wes Donehue, an associate consultant and vice president of the firm Tompkins, Thompson, and Sullivan. A principal of the firm – Warren Tompkins – is a paid advisor to Romney’s presidential campaign.

"Today's half-baked cover-up attempt by the Romney campaign does not even pass the laugh test,” Todd Harris, Thompson’s communications director, said in a prepared statement.

Earlier in the day, Harris indicated the campaign would wait until the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks passed before commenting on the matter. A few hours later he issued the statement.

“The Romney campaign has paid Warren Tompkins and his various firms hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Harris said.

“Wesley Donehue works for Tompkins and is listed on Tompkins' own Web page as an associate of the firm.”

Romney spokesman Kevin Madden denied that the campaign had any knowledge about www.phonyfred.org.

"We had no knowledge of the development or administration of this site,” Madden said in a statement to CNN. “We also disapprove of the site and have made it very clear that the site does not have an affiliation with our campaign."

Madden also questioned why the Thompson campaign would issue such a sharp attack on a day when politics is traditionally set aside.

“Today is a day of remembrance, and should be a day without political statements or attacks on opposing campaigns,” Madden said. “Our campaign is focused on running a campaign about issues that are important to the American people.”

soundoff(54 Responses)

to be quite honest, fred is not only hard to look at, physically, but is a little too conservative for this ever evolving, modern society. why would anyone vote for a president who would deny any group of individuals their human rights? your children could be a memeber of this community, how does that make you feel?

Romney continues to avoid a true discussion of when his current image/presentation deviates from his history/previous presentation. One of the issues that I am concerned with is "integrity." I don't believe this is a strength of Mitt's.

Fred Thompson's people better back up these claims with facts or he's sunk. If he does than Romney is sunk. Either way this is good for the only good candidate on either side, Rudy Giuliani. Fight, fight, fight!

In the first place Fred Thompsen IS a phoney.This deferral of comment until after today's 9/11 cermonies are over are as insincere as everything else his campaign has ever commented on,even with a 'no comment'.That's just a cheap political ploy all wrapped up in an American flag.
Secondly it just proves that the Republicans have at least as much disunity as the Democrats.

Talking about remembering the 9-11 victims, it's no surprise that many of those politicians only mention it just it weighs so much in the political scale. They would do anything, I mean anything to be on the news. What a shame!

I'm going to have to take Mitt's side on this one. From reading the original headlines, I thought this would be a major black eye for Romney's heretofore clean campaign. Upon further reading, however, I see that the campaign's link to the attack site is tenuous at best.
Additionally, I agree with Mr. Madden about the 9/11 anniversary. Fred's campaign has probably hurt itself with this maneuver much more than if they had simply ignored the web site.

Fred Fred Fred
Playing Catch Up
Story after story
Well, I guess that's how you play the game. No matter what ya hear as long as ya hear about a candidate enough you'll vote for them. Right?
I hope we are smarter than that by now. If not, according to all I see, we will elect Hillary since she just stays in the headlines. Now, that would be a real shame.

To one of the commentors: A lot of people don't believe in Christ, but believe in God. Mr. Romney does believe in Christ. The name of the church he is a member of is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is a Christian AND believes in God as well. Please don't beat him over the head with his religion. We are all entitled to believe and worship as we wish. People have died for the the right and privilege to worship as they choose. Politics is politics and religion is religion. Let these candidates campaign and let's all vote for who we believe is the right person to lead our nation, the greatest nation on earth. God Bless America!